Nate’s first train ride
On Thursday we joined other family members for a train ride. The rest of the family was heading downtown Chicago for shopping and museum going, while we were only traveling as far as Des Plaines.
It was Nate's first and he really enjoyed it. He kept asking "Where's Comductor?" (which was how he pronounced it) and would say hello whenever a conductor would walk by.
Stopping at Des Plaines turned out to be a pretty good decision because the 45 minute ride was about Nate's limit for being on the train. We exited and made our way to the public library for a little bit of reading before heading to The ChooChoo for an early lunch. We had hoped to get the 11:04 back home but missed it by a few minutes. So, we headed back to the library for some puzzles and watching fish in the big fish tank until we could catch the 12:04.
Thanks to fellow Metra travelers on the return leg (who's names we never got) for snapping this photo.
fail, Apple, fail
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1371?viewlocale=en_US
So, aside from not being able to tell the apple update software that I don't want their horrible browser on my computer every time they see fit to update iTunes or Quicktime, now, thanks to said upgrade of iTunes, their own installer has broken Quicktime on this machine.
And, of course, because it's Quicktime, once I fix the install I'll still have to go into the registry and remove their worthless "Quicktimetask -atboottime" key.
What ever happened to Apple, the company that actually cared about their users experience?
voice-operated camera control
Photographer and software developer Scott Forman has written software to control a Canon camera connected to a computer (think studio shooting) with voice commands.
Very very slick.
mulch to do
Saturday I started working on leaf clean-up at 9:30 am. I finished at 2:30 pm with zero breaks. This included cleaning the gutters and sweeping piles of leaves off the roof.
Last year we decided to use the leaves from the ginkgo tree as a mulch-substitute for part of the landscaping in the back. It was not a perfect solution, but it did help keep the weeds down early on in the season. For the rest of the leaves, I spent time each weekend mulching them into the yard. However, even with keeping on top of them we have so many leaves that I was left with spots on the grass that had too much leaf matter and, as a result, dead spots in the spring.
This years weather, being as strange as it has been, prevent us from doing pretty much anything with the leaves. There still are trees in the area with most of their leaves on them (if you can believe that) and those that did fall remained wet thanks to our frequent rains at the end of October and into November.
So, instead of mulching the leaves and leaving the remains on the grass I decided to mulch and then sweep them up, in order to cover the landscaped area in the back. And, for the most part, the idea worked. (At least so far.) Almost all the leaves from the yard fit onto the landscaped area. Now, there are a couple rather thick areas, I'll admit, but I think with some turning-over in the spring I think we'll be set.
Of course, with mulching all the leaves, we didn't have anything to burn. So, even though this took 5 hours on Saturday, it was better than 8 to 10 hours of standing around trying to get semi-damp leaves to burn...
With luck, this process each fall will keep us from having to buy wood mulch (another 18 cubic yard load? no thank you) for a long time.
Dried and Confused
You may or may not know this but I really like dried fruit. I love the stuff. Give me a fruit, take all the water out, and cut it up into bite size pieces (if not bite size already) and I will eat it.
Banana, apple, cherry, blueberry, pineapple, guava, apricot, peach, grape, mango, pear, cranberry, and on and on.
Cranberry. There's a good one. Ocean Spray, which I am sure you are aware, is big into cranberries. Really big. When we drive up into central WI, we pass by acres and acres of cranberry bogs (one web page claims there are 110,000 acres of cranberry bogs in Wisconsin). Ocean Spray buys a lot (if not all) of those cranberries.
I like Wisconsin and I like cranberries. It's a match made in dried fruit heaven.
So, I have a couple bags of dried fruit at work that I purchased at the new Jewel near downtown. Except, despite being a brand new store, they didn't have just regular dried cranberries. All they had was cherry-flavored dried cranberries.
Yes, cranberries flavored to taste like cherries. Except not really. They taste like industrial cherry flavoring. Like something you might find on a snowcone. And why is this? Well because they don't actually flavor the cranberries with cherry juice. They use elderberry juice.
Elderberry juice...To turn dried cranberries into something that is supposed to taste like dried cherries.
???
Can you see the meeting at Ocean Spray headquarters? "I'm telling you, people want fruit to taste like other fruit! The guys down in R&D are working on making bananas taste like kiwi!!"
Fear not, dear reader, for my love for dried fruits is greater than my confusion over the existence of dried cranberries that taste like industrial cherry flavor. I will continue to eat them and, in fact, might even buy them again. Maybe they'll be on the shelf next to the kiwi-flavored dried banana.
How to be late by being early
My drive to the train station requires me to cross over the very tracks I will be riding on in order to park.
So imagine my joy at being stopped at the crossing by the very train I take because it was 5 minutes early. And, of course, because it was 5 minutes early, it just sat there and waited for 5 minutes. And so I sat there, on the wrong side of the tracks, unable to move, and watched my train leave the station on time.
I'm sure my boss was really pleased to hear my voicemail this morning explaining how I was going to be late because I missed my train.
After having such a good week last week, this week has been really difficult and stressful. I'm glad it will be over soon.
Fail x5 follow-up
A follow-up to my previous post regarding the structural failure of my Sandisk Extreme III SD card.
Sandisk will not issue a RMA because "physical damage" is not covered by the warranty. They, of course, don't care that (in all likelihood) it was their own card reader that caused these problems. It's frustrating because this was a gift last Christmas and a higher speed one at that.
So I guess we'll have to buy a new card. Though, I'm tempted to just remove the remaining three pieces of plastic and see if the card will still work in our camera and card reader.
Chicago Photography Project – 3 Years
October 26th marked the three year anniversary of my Chicago photography project. As with previous entries I’ve updated the map detailing all the locations I’ve walked. This update, however, also includes the areas I've been to by either El train or car. I finally added my walks around Garfield Park and have included my visits to Pilsen.
(click for a larger view)
I'm at a bit of a loss for something to write about this past year. I feel somewhat bogged down in so much as I've really covered most of the ground I can cover without resorting to taking the El every day. I know there are tons and tons of things I've just not "seen" when walking by or have missed opportunities, but at the same time it feels a little monotonous. Traditional street photography (i.e. photographing people instead of just buildings and scenes) still scares me to no end. I don't know how photographers do it. Well, I sort of know: they project a positive image of themselves through body language and act like they have every right to do what they are doing, which they do, and so it works. And that, of course, is the sticking point with me...
I do not, however, wish to give into doom and gloom. I mean, I have walked A LOT this past year and have pushed myself to go further and faster. Thanks to swanksalot acting as tour guide, I got a good "feet-level" introduction to the Pilsen neighborhood. I've also walked through areas that are outside my comfort zone and lived to tell the tale (because, of course, they're never as bad as they are made out to be, at least, not at noon in the middle of the week). This is all Really Good (tm) and I'm grateful for the opportunities to indulge in these pursuits.
Even before the two year mark of this project, I've been thinking more about the equipment I've been using for this project. I have found a digital point and shoot a great tool because it fits right in a jacket pocket or in a small camera bag slung over my shoulder or across my chest. But the camera, due to the nature of its sensor and lens design, makes it very difficult to isolating a subject by way of a more narrow depth of field. In fact, more often than not, for a photo project that's taking place at noon, it is nearly impossible. As I mentioned earlier, I do have a fair amount of film sitting in the fridge, and developing + scanning at Target (for color negative film) is only $3. Perhaps it's time to start bringing a film SLR out during these walks.
So, three years in and: still no photobook (and very few prints), a map that continues to grow and grow, ruminations on cameras, and I guess, in the end (of this entry at least), I did have something to write about. 
The Olympics through the eyes of a photographer
David Burnett is one of my favorite photographers . His images are always compelling and he uses everything under the sun to create them. From an old Speed Graphic, to a Holga, to a modern DSLR, to a Leica rangefinder and to who knows what else. He very clearly loves what he is doing.
Here's a video he put together of what it was like to shoot the 2008 Olympics (~22min):
David's blog is linked to above, but his professional site is here: http://www.davidburnett.com/
fail x5 (and counting)
Here's a photo I took of the SD card that I use with our point and shoot. Say kids, you can play along at home (ask your parents permission first)! If you have a SD memory card handy, take a quick look at the back of yours and see if you can spot the difference. Or should I say, the 5 differences?
Click for a bigger view. Two of the remaining three pieces are loose on the leading edge of the card, so it's just a matter of time before they fall off as well.
I emailed this photo to Sandisk tech support. Generally speaking, I've heard good things about their RMA process so I'm hopeful they will authorize a replacement.
it is not a slight thing
"I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us." - Charles Dickens
Getting out the vote
All three of us went to the polling station this morning and arrived right when it opened at 6. We had a 45 minute (or so) wait (I think...I can't remember now) and Nate got a "I voted" sticker. When we left the polling station the sun was up and casting a wonderful orange light over everything.
lunch today
Lunch on Monday was outside on a picnic bench in a preserve of restored prairie while warm winds playfully moved around me.
I liked the shadow of my banana stem on the table.
I so hope to enjoy these 70 deg days
I have a 23 mile drive to Buffalo Grove tomorrow that Google Maps laughingly claims will be 45 minutes. Oh Google Maps, you know so very little of humans...
I'll be at a location that appears to be right across from a large green space with walking paths and ponds and whatnot. I will be separated from it by only 6 lanes of traffic but there appear to be tunnels under said road so...hopefully I'll be out and walking during lunch. Also, I hope to meet a friend who works in the area. (This all depends on what kind of time period we get for lunch in the first place, I suppose.)
Somewhat related to this topic: Let's say you have an event on a Monday. If a company tells you they will email you confirmation of something 3 Business Days prior to the event, when would you expect to receive the email? Would it be the Wednesday before, the Thursday morning before, or 5pm the Thursday before?
If you guessed 5pm the Thursday before then you and I do not see eye-to-eye on what "3 Business Days" actually means...